I have been a fish keeper since I was the age of 10 years old.(I am now well over 5 decades older!lol!) It all started one day when it was finally my turn to take home the resident class room gold fish in my science teachers class, to look after for the holidays. That’s all it took! Now almost 50 years later, I am still at it. I have kept fish for so long that my kids were born with a huge fish tank in the house and never lived a day in the house when I did not have at least one or more fish tanks. Today I think I am at about 16 tanks including 4 at my office. LOL they say once you get MTS (Multiple tank syndrome) its almost impossible to cure!! Over the last couple of years I really took my long term hobby to the next level. After keeping huge Oscars and plecos and blood parrots and a couple of other large monster fish successfully for so many years of my adult like, I began to miss my early days of fish keeping when I hardly new anything. In the days when we kept guppies and tetras and other small community type fish. In the days when we used to cleanout the tank completely every 2 months or so and wash out the gravel and then put everything back together again and then put the fish back. LOL What did we know about the nitrogen cycle in those days?? I discovered via YouTube that having a fish room was a thing. A few videos later and I was hooked. I though about it for days and just started doing it. My wife recons I had a mid life crisis! I recon I had a pure moment of absolute clarity and then didn’t realize at the time what I was getting my self into. Jokes aside, once I got started I couldn’t stop and been having a fun with it ever since. In fact I have to admit that the one thing that has kept me grounded and sane throughout the crazy year that was 2020 and beyond, is having my time each day just to go down to the fish room with just me and my tanks and my fish and some time to think, relax, focus and generally enjoy all the wonders of this fantastic hobby and seen nature happening right in front of you everyday regardless of what is going on in our crazy world. The idea of Specialist Aquatics, was born out of a need to be able to supply aquarium accessories and equipment that is not commonly found at most retailers, yet is always sought after. Added to the fact that online shopping is now a normal part of almost everyone’s life now and well into the future. One of the things I struggled with once I started keeping more than a tank or two and especially once I started with an entire room dedicated to fish tanks, was getting hardware and dry goods and generally bits and pieces that I wanted and needed to build and complete certain projects in the fish room. Never really simple or easy, many many hours were spent at night online looking for specific products, simple in nature but almost impossible to get in South Africa. I had visited many aquarium shops over the years and some still here and sadly others gone, but the one thing that I noticed that they all have in common still to this day, is that everyone was the same. Same old boring products that have been around for the last 30 plus years. Same old boring heaters, air pumps, filters etc…. Hardly ever anything new and exciting. Not to mention that some of the most simple things that would make life so much better in the long run, for example a “never clog air stone”, was simply no where to be found in South Africa! And so here we are today. I decided to take my experience and share what I have learnt with all that are interested in the hobby and have a passion for fish keeping, with products that I believe to be of great benefit to the hobby, easy to acquire, reasonably priced and most of all used and tested extensively by me in my own fish room. The product range will grow steadily in time and although I am only kicking off with a couple of products to start with, I can assure you that over time this will grow to more and more exciting and most of all useful sought after items for everyday use in the hobby. The mix of products will included, specialist imported products, exclusively imported by SPECIALIST AQUATICS as well as a range of locally available product’s from the local distributors/vendors that have agreed to work with me. Sadly some of the products I wanted to feature on the site wont be available as I was told by these vendors that they “don not supply online stores only!” apparently you have to have a brick and mortar store!! Go figure!! Since I don’t ever intend of having a retail outlet or retail store front of my own, because I was once involved in retail and never want to do that again with a retail store, all the products will be supplied purely online and so where ever possible, I would like to keep the pricing as fair as is possible, since I wont have large overheads to maintain. However I still have to eat so I need to make at least enough to buy food LOL!! Anyway enough rambling, have fun and enjoy your fish everyday and look after them!!!!
Vendor Biography
I have been a fish keeper since I was the age of 10 years old.(I am now well over 5 decades older!lol!) It all started one day when it was finally my turn to take home the resident class room gold fish in my science teachers class, to look after for the holidays. That’s all it took! Now almost 50 years later, I am still at it. I have kept fish for so long that my kids were born with a huge fish tank in the house and never lived a day in the house when I did not have at least one or more fish tanks. Today I think I am at about 16 tanks including 4 at my office. LOL they say once you get MTS (Multiple tank syndrome) its almost impossible to cure!! Over the last couple of years I really took my long term hobby to the next level. After keeping huge Oscars and plecos and blood parrots and a couple of other large monster fish successfully for so many years of my adult like, I began to miss my early days of fish keeping when I hardly new anything. In the days when we kept guppies and tetras and other small community type fish. In the days when we used to cleanout the tank completely every 2 months or so and wash out the gravel and then put everything back together again and then put the fish back. LOL What did we know about the nitrogen cycle in those days?? I discovered via YouTube that having a fish room was a thing. A few videos later and I was hooked. I though about it for days and just started doing it. My wife recons I had a mid life crisis! I recon I had a pure moment of absolute clarity and then didn’t realize at the time what I was getting my self into. Jokes aside, once I got started I couldn’t stop and been having a fun with it ever since. In fact I have to admit that the one thing that has kept me grounded and sane throughout the crazy year that was 2020 and beyond, is having my time each day just to go down to the fish room with just me and my tanks and my fish and some time to think, relax, focus and generally enjoy all the wonders of this fantastic hobby and seen nature happening right in front of you everyday regardless of what is going on in our crazy world. The idea of Specialist Aquatics, was born out of a need to be able to supply aquarium accessories and equipment that is not commonly found at most retailers, yet is always sought after. Added to the fact that online shopping is now a normal part of almost everyone’s life now and well into the future. One of the things I struggled with once I started keeping more than a tank or two and especially once I started with an entire room dedicated to fish tanks, was getting hardware and dry goods and generally bits and pieces that I wanted and needed to build and complete certain projects in the fish room. Never really simple or easy, many many hours were spent at night online looking for specific products, simple in nature but almost impossible to get in South Africa. I had visited many aquarium shops over the years and some still here and sadly others gone, but the one thing that I noticed that they all have in common still to this day, is that everyone was the same. Same old boring products that have been around for the last 30 plus years. Same old boring heaters, air pumps, filters etc…. Hardly ever anything new and exciting. Not to mention that some of the most simple things that would make life so much better in the long run, for example a “never clog air stone”, was simply no where to be found in South Africa! And so here we are today. I decided to take my experience and share what I have learnt with all that are interested in the hobby and have a passion for fish keeping, with products that I believe to be of great benefit to the hobby, easy to acquire, reasonably priced and most of all used and tested extensively by me in my own fish room. The product range will grow steadily in time and although I am only kicking off with a couple of products to start with, I can assure you that over time this will grow to more and more exciting and most of all useful sought after items for everyday use in the hobby. The mix of products will included, specialist imported products, exclusively imported by SPECIALIST AQUATICS as well as a range of locally available product’s from the local distributors/vendors that have agreed to work with me. Sadly some of the products I wanted to feature on the site wont be available as I was told by these vendors that they “don not supply online stores only!” apparently you have to have a brick and mortar store!! Go figure!! Since I don’t ever intend of having a retail outlet or retail store front of my own, because I was once involved in retail and never want to do that again with a retail store, all the products will be supplied purely online and so where ever possible, I would like to keep the pricing as fair as is possible, since I wont have large overheads to maintain. However I still have to eat so I need to make at least enough to buy food LOL!! Anyway enough rambling, have fun and enjoy your fish everyday and look after them!!!!
